Your Mind Games
by PixieDust493
Summary: Part of my "Of Crimson Bites and Kisses" series. AU. After a year out post-chunin exams... The rookie nine reunite at Shikamaru's house for a 'get-together'. Shikamaru is overcome by a certain kunoichi's mind games. InoShika One could be two -shot.


**Your Mind Games**

_Shikamaru._

_Hey Ino..._

_I've got something I wanna tell ya..._

* * *

And no way was he gonna say that. Sounds the start of a cheesy joke. Sheesh. It's just a get-together. And everyone's invited. She'd probably heard about it already by now anyway. There would be no need to tell her...

But what if she didn't know? What if word hadn't really gotten around? What if he spoke to her three days later and she'd be all like "What? A party I wasn't invited to?"

Just like her.

Worse. What if she found out, already knew, time and place and everything... and then didn't show up? She couldn't make it? She didn't like the company? She didn't _want_ to be there?

Over-thinking it again, Shikamaru. Over-doing it.

2am.

Get some sleep, shirker.

***

_Ino._

_So I hear you're having a party? Well, '_I'd laugh', _a sorta get-together right?_

_Am I invited?_

* * *

-_"Am I invited?"_ What the hell? How could 'I' _not_ be invited to something?

Since when did she start asking the requests? No, it was others who asked requests of her. Not the other way around. _"Am I invited?"_ The imaginary, unsaid words replayed endlessly, hindering her beauty sleep. Left hanging in the air, the question begged answer and pulled annoyingly at the temperature, tugging it up with every play of the imaginary tape.

So she'd just have to mention it. Casual conversation. Nothing unusual. Nothing to suspect...

_Suspect?!_

Since when had there ever been anything to suspect?

Denial.

-Jeez girl you need a cold shower.

***

***

_Hey Ino, I need to..._

-Hey Ino, got a drink?

_Shikamaru, can I ask..._

-Yeah, thanks, but Chouji won't stop drinking all the _diet_. Get him to stop? I can't drink any of that other stuff.

_I always wondered whether you thought..._

-I always wonder why girls are so fixated on their weight. Female eccentricities never cease to surprise me.

_Shikamaru, I need to know, I'm even confusing 'myself'..._

-Oh do shut up! Lazy! I don't think you can talk like that when you don't even try or use a little thing called _effort._

_I just don't know, you'll think I'm crazy..._

-Hah! Correction: I don't _have_ to try. You see I'm just that good.

_You'll think I've completely lost it..._

-And modest too!

_I dunno since when, it just kinda...happened..._

-You betcha, Agh! What a drag, I should never have chucked this thing. I'm not one for 'parties'. Dad's idea.

_You made me ask questions I never asked before..._

-Hardly a party, Shikamaru. There's nine of us.

_I can't think like I used to..._

-Yeah, well. This is about as 'party' as party gets for me. Never invite me to one of those mass-house-murders you go to _all_ the friggin' time.

_I can't look at you in the same way anymore..._

-Cha! What makes you think I'd invite you? And I do not go _all_ the time, just when occasion calls..heh...

_I see you differently now, and I can't stop it..._

-Yeah! And I'll bet _occasion_ calls alot for you now you're all grown up!

_I don't know how to think of you..._

-Shut UP! Rude! Sheesh, just because I'm sexy does NOT mean I'm a complete slut.

_You don't fit into any box..._

-Oh! Not a _complete_ slut. On the DL right?

_You're not my friend anymore..._

-Hey! Shirker! Even if you actually _made_ an effort in 'that' department, you could never catch up to me. Ever.

_Ever..._

-Like I even need such things. Distractions. Troublesome. I'm past such dependency.

_Could you?_

-No you're not _Shikamaru_. You're a man. You never will be. You're all the same.

_I don't know..._

-Tch! I'm outta here! Seeya in a bit. Have fun, and try to keep public displays to a minimum.

_I won't if you won't, I'm afraid..._

-Bastard!

_Of what?_

***

_Shikamaru._

He looked. He sighed. What a drag. What a mess. And there were only nine of us.

Naruto had chucked so much food around, it looked like they'd had a full on house party. Sasuke spent the entire night looking smugly relaxed but death glaring Neji. Hinata had tried several times to approach Naruto, but he's such an idiot he didn't even acknowledge her, having too much fun matching the flavoured ramen up to the appropriate genre movie. Lee and Sakura seemed to be getting on pretty well now that Lee had given the whole "girlfriend" thing a rest. And Ino...he hadn't seen her leave...

Ino spent half the night with one eye on Sasuke and the other on Sakura, paying attention to her whispers. And the other half glaring tauntingly at _Shikamaru._

Checking to see if I would crack, be a party-crusher, be a miserable hanger-on, be a loser. Tch! What a drag! I knew she was a pest!

But what if she wasn't? What if she was looking? Really looking? Like 'looking' looking? She would never...

She would never 'look' look at someone that way.

I can just imagine her at 'those' parties...Eyeing up the crowd. Checking for the best-looking, most idiotic, crass guy there. She'll pick one. The one with the nice torso. The one all the girls want. The one all the guys are jealous of. She'll saunter over, swaying those tiny hips of hers way too much to be normal, and she'll entrance him immediately. Not with her jutsu. No, this is an entirely different kinda power. He'll fall under prowess, her confidence, her sex-appeal. She'd wrap him around her little finger and beckon. Beckon him to drink, beckon him to bed. And the rest would be history.

-Shikamaru...

He spun around to hear a breathy whisper, coming from behind the sofa.

-Shika...do you...

He crept towards the sofa, slowly, feeling the creak of his boot with each step, as if trying to absorb the sound it might make.

-I'm afraid

-What are you afraid of?

He couldn't stop himself, it just sorta... came out. Oh crap! Now he was turning red, now his ears were burning, now he could feel a bead of sweat trail down his forehead.

He heard Ino stir and shift. Shikamaru held his breath, afraid that one tiny sigh could break the still. And she would wake up.

She woke up anyway, as only Ino could.

-Unnnuhhhh! Guys? GUYS?! Hey!

She turned around.

-Hey! Is anyone..?

She saw him.

-Oh, Shikamaru! Jeeez, everyone already left? Urgh! I'm turning into YOU! I can't believe I fell asleep!

It was at the moment, on-the-dot moment. When she was effing and huffing and scraping back her mooncast hair into her trademark ponytail, fixing a clip in, pulling her shirt straight, twisting her earrings, dusting herself off and pursing her perfect lips that way, that Shikamaru's carefree, careless, couldn't care less demeanour switched into something else entirely.

-So I'm gonna go home okay? You don't need any help clearing up do you?

She spoke in a "I serrrriously don't wanna help you clear up, but if I don't offer your dad's gonna tell my dad and then my dad..." tone.

-As a matter of fact...

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes in childish menace.

Hiding.

-You know what Shikamaru? YOU'RE a DRAG!

-Hey! I'm not the one in purple and fishnets!

-FINE! What needs doing?

Shikamaru couldn't stop staring. His lip hung in nervous confusion and his eyes contorted into innocent desire. She wasn't hot, or sexy, or nice. She was beautiful. She had a beauty behind her eyes that no one but Shikamaru could see.

-Uhhhhh

Shikamaru's stutter stripped the air between then of comfort. It was awkward.

-Jeeez, 'tard. I'll start over her by the sofas, and you do the kitchen-bit! Kay?

***

They cleaned, they chatted. Bit by bit the tension faded, things got rolling.

-So Chouji was with TenTen the ENTIRE night?

-Yeahh, I think he was! When he was drinking your precious _diet_ crap.

-Hey! That stuffs tastes better than the regular!

They laughed. It was tingling chime of forgotten childhood.

-Shikamaru, when did we stop talking?

-They day you passed your Chunin exam.

Silence.

-That specific huh? You been takin' notes Shikamaru?

She laughed. A tense, knowing laugh, like an anticipation of something she couldn't control.

Silence. Shikamaru stopped piling plates. He looked at his feet and then slowly tilted his head up to meet her eyes across the room. He took a few seconds to take in her rapidly changing expression. From a tense smile, to a neutral bewilderedness, to an almost tearful frown, to a slight agape mouth and shock. Shikamaru exhaled, peering over the edge of the deep hole he was about to fall into...

-Yeah.

* * *

-It's not a diary, it's drawings.

-Drawings?

-Yeah. Drawings.

-I didn't know you drew.

-You do now.

-Can I see?

-No.

-Why not?

-Because!

-Because what?

-Just Because!

-Cha! I'll bet their pervy.

-They're not.

-Prove it!

-Fine.

***

_Ino._

There was one of them in on the beach, in a forest, holding hands, watching a sunrise. It was frightening, enlightening and liberating all at once. It was a good kind of shock.

-You drew _all_ of these?

-Yeah.

-Woah.

-What?

-I never knew.

-Knew what?

* * *

-That you felt the same.

***

Sat on his bed. Flipping through sketches. The house moderately tidy. 2am in the morning.

-Gahh, I'm tirred again. What time is it?

-2am

She leapt from the bed.

-2AM! Jeeeez I can't go home now.

-You're dad's waiting for you isn't he? He wouldn't mind you being here late, party and all, and you've known me and dad forever so...

-I was supposed to go home with Sakura! Stay the night. Grrrrr, I have words for HER!

Shikamaru rose and placed his hand gently on her shoulder. He almost jolted at the contact with her flawless skin, like porcelain.

-You could stay here I guess, Sakura'll be asleep, so will your dad knowing him.

He smiled. A memory of both their dad's falling dead asleep on Shika's sofa, chips still hanging from their mouths, a terrible, straight-to-DVD movie blaring out from the box.

She smiled back. It was incredibly unorthodox, I mean, they weren't even together, they'd only just discovered their mutual affections and now, staying the night? Well, she knew Shikamaru wouldn't try anything...

-I could?

-I could take the sofa.

-I can't push you out of your own bed.

-You're not, I'm offering it.

-And I'm offering you to sleep with me...shit...that came out wrong...

Ino's perfect porcelain cheeks turned a flushed pink. She could hear Shikamaru's hilarious laugh. She could feel his hilarious stare on her. She could feel his arms around her waist. Huh? Arms?

-Is that how you usually do it?

-Do what?

-At those parties? Ask for it?

-SHIKAMARU NO! That's definitely not...I mean I don't...I NEVER!

-Never?

-Never!

...............

-Well that clears a hell of a lot of things up and is also, quite a relief.

-Huh?!

-You jolted when I touched you, you tensed when I held you. And I'm the same.

-Same?

-Same.

Shikamaru smiled.

Ino smiled.

Their smiles grew close and closer until his soft lips touched her perfect ones and held for what seemed like forever.

Forever ended when Ino pulled away, now bright red.

-Dammit Shika! I don't blush! I'm not shy or bashful or coy! I am smooth a..and confident a...and..

He stopped her struggle with another sweet, pressing kiss.

-And beautiful, and kind...most of the time...

She made for a mock-shock and He chuckled.

-And very tired?

As if on cue, Ino yawned, stretching her arms out and looping them around Shikamaru's neck. She pushed him backward and slowly, they rolled back onto Shikamaru's bed. Ino placed a light kiss on Shikamaru's lips before crawling into the un-marred side of the king-size. She shed her skirt, shirt and fishnets and tossed them to the floor. Ino rolled away from Shikamaru, teasingly and closed her eyes, pretended to sleep.

Shikamaru slid in beside her, with only black loose pleat pants on. He edged closer, taking in her intoxicating, enchanting scent. Closer, he could feel loose strands of her light, perfect hair tickling his nose. Closer still, he could feel her back rise and fall against his chest...

-Shikamaru?

Ino stirred and tried to turn over. She tensed. He could feel her muscles tighten.

-Is this too close?

He gently draped his arm over her waist, pulling her into his structured body. She could feel every line, contour and muscle. She loved it.

-No.

She smiled. Even though he couldn't see. He could feel her smile. Her muscles relaxed and she sank into his embrace.

* * *

-Shikamaru?

His strained, tired voice replied.

-Ino?

-That'd better be a kunai still in your pocket...

* * *

Tell me if you loved it, Tell me if you hated it, Tell me to get rid of the crappy ending.

Two-shot anyone? I wanted to write them a lemon, but it got to 2am and then... yeah, time for bed.

Reviews make my year guys. Dooo it! =) xxx


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